Australia, Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you amen!

by liberal japonicus

(Title from here, which includes the incredibly racist bit at the end)

Well, Oz has spoken. I've enjoyed watching lots of reportage, here is a summary. I'll leave it to all of you for your thoughts, but some notes

• After the defeat of the Voice amendment, I wasn't super confident, so thank god.
• Ranked choice for the win!
• Damn, Aussie journalists really have sharp elbows
• Some things I learned: Negative gearing, teal
• Watching Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (who said she wanted to 'Make Australia Great Again') flail in interviews was gold
• Also fun to learn that a party called 'The Trumpet of Patriots', (wink wink, nudge nudge) which paid to make unsolicited text messages to phones, got blown away. Ha ha

Thoughts on where the anglosphere is headed.

Comments

[wj]

As the Canadians, so the Australians.

It is remarkable how Trump has managed to assure the defeat of parties with any similarity to his MAGA brand. And the massive defeat of any party which explicitly praises him. You'd think their voters had some serious connection to reality.

From their lips to the ears of red state voters. ("You've got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?")

[Pro Bono]

The UK, however, has reacted differently - the Trumpist 'Reform' party was by far the most popular in elections a few days ago.

Now, these elections were mostly for County Councils, that is for local government excluding the big cities. This electorate is less sympathetic to the Labour Party than is the country as a whole. And turnout in these elections is typically low. But it's clear that whereas in last year's General Election, Reform helped Labour overall by taking more votes from the Conservatives, it's now more popular than the Conservatives, and a real threat to Labour in Brexit-voting areas.

The bookies have Reform as roughly equal favourites with Labour to take the most seats at the next General Election.

How must difference is there between Reform and Trump? Not much. The obvious thing is that the UK electorate wouldn't vote for a candidate as vile as Trump, so Farage is relatively personable (see him on HIGNFY for example). Which is not much consolation.

[Ugh]

Rule 6: There is NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, rule 6

[wj]

The UK, however, has reacted differently - the Trumpist 'Reform' party was by far the most popular in elections a few days ago.

Perhaps, as with Brexit, they need to shoot themselves in the foot up close and personal to get the idea that this is not a good idea.** At least, unlike Brexit, it will be possible to reverse course after experiencing the results.

** Definitely seems to be true of a big chunk of the US population as well. The Canadians and the Australians look to be a bit smarter.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

I suspect that the multi-year delay in implementing Brexit may have made the public a bit less angry about the effects. Habituation, if you will.

If HARD BREXIT occurred within a few months of the vote, Farange would likely not be breathing at this point in time.